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Summary: Important story of depression ridden America.
Review: The passionate saga of the Joad family, who like thousands of American farmers lose their homesteads through a combination of bad luck and poor farming techniques. The Joad's travel west under the false promise of plentiful work in agricultural rich California.The journey is long and frightening as the family endures humiliation and the threat of starvation. When they arrive in California the Joads discover thousands of other displaced 'Okies' looking for work forcing down wages that the landowners were are willing to pay. They also discover that the landowners will do whatever is necessary to keep wages low. The Grapes of Wrath is an important American novel that tells a tragic story of an American family trying to stay together and survive under the most dire of circumstances. Generations of young Americans have grown up and never seen economic hard times. Although the bleakness of the conditions may be exagerated, depressioon ravaged America was not anything like it is today. This book gives an insight into just how tough times were. Ma Joad is one of the strongest female characters ever depicted in American literature as she struggles to feed her family and keep them together. The last few pages involving the still born birth of a child and the feeding of a starving man are tragic. Steinbaeck's novel is passionate and heartbreaking and he had to endure public vilification because of it. His later writings revealed a more conservative nature. Every young American should experience this novel.
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Summary: Steinbeck's Masterpiece
Review: I will keep this review brief and to the point. If you enjoyed other of Steinbeck's classics such as "Of Mice and Men" and/or " The Pearl" then you will surely enjoy this book. The tale describes a family and its struggle to survive in America during a period of vast social turmoil. This book describes many facets of human behavior and is a terrific source for education. However, the story is very sad and depressing so it is not for those seeking a light enjoyable read.
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Summary: the grapes of wrath
Review: Steinbecks words in this sence is a brush painting the story for you. Even though his words get complicated, it is fun to read over and over. I think the book is not long enough, i was disipoted when the story ended, I can't wait till a couple years down the road wheni say," I forget that whole story." READ IT AGAIN! i didn't really forget, just miss being saturated by the book.
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Summary: A truly enthralling view of American life in the Depression
Review: Just like most of the other readers, I was required to read this book in high school about a decade ago. I still remember the vivid images this great piece of literary work painted of a farming family forced to move out for a better chance at life - and thus fall short in the very end. It is very, very descriptive - quite enough to give you the realistic illusion of being there all the way back to the dolorous, down-trodden days of The Great Depression and its ruthless, irrational injustice on the innocent, undeserving Americans. In fact, the very idea of whole mountains of oranges being doused with kersone to make them unedible simply because the prices went overboard really did hit me. And it was also very hard to see once-proud people being savagely reduced bit by bit to utterly Stone-Age plight, where they simply stuggled on and on even after they all lost in the very end. In short, though it can be a good way to introduce young people to this kind of literature, it may not be recommanded for everyone. For instance, it has a great deal of very repulvise parts, like a rabbit being skinned and cooked over fire, a used-car salesman sporting an eyeless socket, and the young mother who lost her infant finally baring her milk-engorged breast to a hungry derelict in the very end. Not to mention the very fact this ending still leaves you hanging.
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Summary: For once the Pulitzer people got it right...
Review: This is one of the most enduring books i have ever read. The message Steinbeck was attempting to portray is just as relevant now as it was in the time the book was written. Discrimination and hardship still exists today even in this 'developed' part of the world' But, this book is more than a historic tale of suffering. It is a gripping, thought provoking and at times heart warming tale. Whilst the Joads are dealt blow after blow, the family stays together because that is all they have...quiet a lesson. Brilliant.
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Summary: Try again, Stienbeck
Review: This novel is an awful book. Steinbeck lapses between having actual historical information and having his novel. Aside from being confusing, the novel is exceptionally long and boring. I would not recommend anyone read this book.
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Summary: Full of adventure.
Review: I must say this book was very well writen. It took a while to finish the book because I just couldn't read the book, I had to take the time to analyze what I just read. This book is full of adventure every chapter had a new ride to bring me on. It's like one of those movies that leave you on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next. That's what this book did for me there were times when I just couldn't put the book down because I was excited to see what was going to happen next. Plus Steinbeck was so good at putting words together, that it made it easy for me to picture what something was like and look like, which made the book even more exciting to read. There were some chapters that when the character were feeling sad I felt sad, and when they were excited I felt excited too. It was just the way he worded it. It made me feel like it was happening to me too. I just have to say that it you are looking for a book that has surprising events everytime you turn the page then this is the book for you. Enjoy!
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Summary: A realistic view of the hardships faced by the migrants
Review: When I was first assigned to read John Steinbeck's book The Grapes of Wrath in English class, the first thing that I noticed was how huge it was. Over 600 pages! I was afraid it would be a story that wandered all over the place and didn't really have a point. Even after I had begun reading, it seemed that this assumption was correct since all book seemed to be doing was telling a very detailed and slow-moving story about a family in Oklahoma. However, as I continued reading, I began to realize that the very way the book portrays the life of these people so realistically and what the reader learns from their situation is itself the point of the book. The Grapes of Wrath is the story of the Joad family, an Oklahoma family of tenant farmers during the Great Depression who are kicked out of their homes because they cannot make a profit on their crops. As more and more farmers are kicked off their land to be replaced by men on tractors, over 300,000 people migrate west to California in hopes of earning a living picking fruit, cotton, etc... for owners with larger farms. Hardship follows them during the long trip to California. Even once they get there, they're divided against themselves as they compete for work so they can just feed their families. Throughout the book the family encounters opposition from all sorts of people, including land owning farmers who must pay extremely low wages in order to make a profit, cops who cause more trouble than good, locals who are afraid of the massive influx of people, and a government that seems unable to help. In the end it's sheer will that gives them the strength to continue to fight as the Depression relentlessly tries to break the people's determination and the family bonds. The Grapes of Wrath gives a very realistic view of the Great Depression and tells it from viewpoints you don't see from just reading about it in a history textbook. The book is divided into narrative chapters that tell the story of the Joads, and, every other chapter, the inter chapters that give information about the situation in a style that's part documentary, part editorial. Throughout the book, especially during the inter chapters, Steinbeck uses symbolism to convey ideas. In particular, there are many allusions to the Bible, including the title. Due to its realistic portrayal of the life of the migrants, the book has also come under considerable controversy for its profanity and sex, since those things were parts of the lives of these people. Also, Steinbeck uses the inter chapters both to make people aware of the problems and to give suggestions for how to deal with them, and many of his beliefs could be seen as Communistic. I have really found The Grapes of Wrath to be a difficult book to rate. On the one hand, it's a slow-moving book that contains a whole lot of talk that people who aren't really into reading books for fun will likely find boring, and it's just too long to hold some people's interest. On the other hand, however, the character interaction is very realistic and human, being based on actual migrants Steinbeck knew. Because of this, we get to feel like we really know the people in the book. The seemingly excessive length of the book is actually needed to give us a real understanding of how these people lived their lives. When the characters get into intense situations that threaten the physical and psychological well-being of the family both as a group of individuals and as a single unit, the book reaches hights of drama and emotional intensity that is almost never matched today in movies, books, video games, music, or any of our other forms of art. I often found myself just sitting there thinking about what I'd just read for a while after I finished with the required reading for the day. There's not really space within this 1,000 word limit to fully discuss my thoughts on this book, but what I can say is that it will draw you into the world of the migrants in the 1930's and show you plainly and truthfully just what it was like. I can understand the opinion of people who hate this book because it's all a matter of taste, and some people just would not be able to forgive the many parts they consider agonizingly boring. Although I give this book four stars overall, there are parts of it that I'd give 10 stars if I could. I highly recommend this powerful book to anyone.
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Summary: May you never know this,but by reading,learn the difference
Review: " Her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously. " This is such an incredibly ending to an epic and intimate novel. The themes of universal and personal chapters interwoven with eachother and the theme of water, the lack of it in the beginning and the deluge in the end, the diaspora of families and the congregation of a movement.
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Summary: More personal than a history textbook
Review: The Grapes of Wrath is an excellent doorway to the times of the Great Depression and an account that gives a realistic impression of the Dust Bowl and migration. It ranges from corrupt car salesmen, to experienced but accomodating waitresses like Mae, from scared and angry Californians, to ruthless and (at times) greedy farm owners. At the center of all this are the Joads. Like many farmers escaping the Dust Bowl, they travel to Califonia with hopes of prospering through their own hard work. Instead they are greeted with contempt by most Californians and are considered lucky if they find enough work just to eat on a daily basis. This book describes in a way what a history textbook rarely can encompass: the many and very personal experiences of the Great Depression. However, if you are uncomfortable with long and detailed stories, I suggest you find a comfortable sitting position before opening The Grapes of Wrath.
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